What is it with male academics/novelists and D.H.Lawrence?

Here's a question that I'm sure barely anyone out there will be interested in but why is it that male academics/novelists seem to think that D. H. Lawrence is one of the greatest novelists to ever breathe? I was watching The First Tuesday Bookclub on Tuesday and watching male writers praise Lawrence's Women in Love whilst Marieke Hardy and Jennifer Byrne declared it dreadful. I mean there are lots of authors out there who are supposedly more geared to one gender or the other but none is as clear cut as Lawrence. I know men who love Jane Austen and the Brönte sisters, and women who love Thomas Hardy and  Bret Easton Ellis. Personally I was told during my honours year that women prefer the poetry of T. S. Eliot to the poetry of Ezra Pound, and as it turned out that in my all female honours class, I was the only exception to this assumption.

There is always an exception but not with D.H.Lawrence it seems.

Universally I have found that women abhor his writing noting that it is dreary and largely unreadable, and that his female characters that are poorly drawn to say the least- I've also found some men feel the same. I read Sons and Lovers for Yr 11 and it remains one of my least favourite books, and at uni, I gave up on The Plumed Serpent after a couple of chapters. I even had a connection with Lawrence. I grew up in Thirroul which is where Lawrence lived during his years in Australia and when he was younger, my brother had a friend who lived in a house on the property Lawrence once lived (the garage is all that remains from Lawrence's time and it is heritage listed). Being as he was a temporary son of Thirroul, I felt I should have tried harder to like his work but I cannot do it.

So the questions I pose to the people of the internet are:

- Women- Is there anyone out there who is willing to come the defence of the dreadful Lawrence? I've heard rumours that some women like Lady Chatterley's Lover but I've seen no evidence. Give me a reason to even give the man a second chance....

-Men- If you have read  and liked Lawrence, why do you think he is so good? How can you get past the dreadfulness?